French Open dominance
Nadal wins Paris tournament for 11th time
Rafael Nadal spent Sunday afternoon in Paris achieving what no other man in tennis history has done — and no player, man or woman, has done in the Open era — by winning the same Grand Slam tournament title on 11 occasions.
Nadal pocketed his 11th French Open title and second in a row with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory over seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem, an Austrian who was playing in his first career final at a major.
“It’s impossible to describe the feeling,” Nadal told John McEnroe on the NBC broadcast after the match. “It’s probably the most important tournament of the year for me because it’s the one I really feel I have more chances, and have the chance to have the trophy again with me is unbelievable.”
Thiem, who had three wins in 10 meetings against Nadal, wasn’t a threat to take down Nadal, even when the Spaniard’s left hand cramped in the fourth game of the third set.
“There is a reason why Rafa’s won here 11 times,” Thiem told McEnroe. “He was too good again here. I have to accept it. ... To play him here is one of the toughest challenges in sport.”
The Grand Slam trophy is the 17th of Nadal’s career, and his 11 in the same major tops Roger Federer’s eight at Wimbledon.
Nadal equaled the record of Margaret Court, who rode the home-court advantage to win the Australian Open on 11 occasions, an accomplishment that bridged the pre-Open and Open era of tennis.
Nadal, 32, has now won four titles this season — all on clay, an impressive feat considering a right leg injury forced him to abandon his Australian Open quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic and kept him off the court until the claycourt season.
Nadal leaves Paris retaining his No. 1 status and can look ahead to securing a third Wimbledon trophy.
While Federer leads Nadal with 20 Grand Slam tournament titles to 17, Na- dal holds a 17-16 edge since he won his first in 2005 at the French Open.
Nadal also retains a 23-15 advantage in matches played against Federer, though the Swiss won all four of their latest meetings last year. In Grand Slam finals, Nadal also holds a 6-3 advantage over Federer, with two of those losses taking place in 2006 and 2007 at Wimbledon.
In a strong nod that being over 30 is not over-the-hill for a tennis champion, Nadal and Federer, 36, have won the last six majors played dating to the 2017 Australian Open, which marked their last encounter in a Slam final. In that match, Nadal surrendered a servicebreak lead in the fifth set to allow Federer the victory.
Nadal joins Federer, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall as the only men to win at least three Grand Slam titles in the Open era after turning 30. Besides winning the last two French Opens, Nadal also won the 2017 U.S. Open.
Despite his clay-court success, Nadal believes in his abilities wherever he plays.
“Is not true that I born on clay,” he said earlier during the French Open. “Everybody thought I practiced on clay all my life, and is not true. ... My uncle (Toni) prepared me to be a player, probably not typical player of clay. And on clay is true that during all my career my game adapted very well to this surface and I had an amazing success.
“Honest, I had success in all the surfaces, and I worked hard to be the best player possible in all the surfaces.”